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Moderator Bio - 

Kenneth Bence is the Director of Research, Analysis and Policy for the Association of Residential Resources in Minnesota (ARRM), a non-profit association of nearly 200 providers, businesses and advocates dedicated to leading the advancement of home and community-based services supporting people living with disabilities. In this role, he is responsible for creating and maintaining data systems that support ARRM’s legislative agenda and advocacy efforts on behalf of its members. With over 30 years of experience in healthcare and related sectors, he has worked with managed care organizations, state and local public health departments, coalitions, community health improvement partnerships, and non-profit foundations. He has served on several Boards of Directors for non-profit organizations, and is a past president of the Minnesota Public Health Association. Finally, with over 20 years as a paid-on-call firefighter and current Battalion Chief with the Golden Valley Fire Department, he brings a unique public safety perspective to his work.

Sarah King is a restorative justice practitioner and directs the Restorative Justice Program at the Minnesota Department of Corrections. In this role, she oversees restorative process options for survivors of severe harm, supports the implementation of restorative programming within Minnesota's state prison system, and advances opportunities to integrate restorative principles and practices throughout the criminal legal system.

Sarah has more than 15 years of experience in restorative practices across local, national, and international settings. She specializes in the application of restorative approaches in cases involving severe harm and in post-conviction contexts.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Justice & Peace Studies from the University of St. Thomas and a Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation and Restorative Justice from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University.

Tyler Roenicke is a public health nurse and program supervisor with Washington County Public Health & Environment in Minnesota. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Michigan State University and a Master of Nursing from the University of Minnesota. Roenicke has 11 years of experience in local public health, following earlier work in adult autism services. His work centers on maternal and child health and family support, including supervision of evidence-based family home visiting. For more than a decade, he has also facilitated parenting groups for incarcerated parents in the Washington County jail. In 2024, the program adopted the Circle of Security Parenting (COSP) model, an attachment-based approach that helps parents understand and respond to their children’s emotional needs. Roenicke also contributes to program planning, policy and procedure development, and quality improvement, with a focus on making programs like this sustainable within local public health.

Rebecca Shlafer, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. Professor Shlafer is a developmental child psychologist with additional training in maternal and child public health. Her community-engaged research and teaching activities sit at the intersection of child development, public health, and the criminal legal system. She co-leads the Model Jail Practices Learning Community with partners at the Minnesota Department of Health. In addition, she leads a multi-state study on enhanced perinatal programs in 8 state prisons. Professor Shlafer's research has informed several policy changes in the state of Minnesota, including the state's anti-shackling legislation passed in 2014 and the passage of the Healthy Start Act in 2021, which allows the Commissioner of Corrections to place pregnant and postpartum people in community-based alternatives to incarceration.